NIÉMAH DAVIDS
“As a foreigner living in South Africa, your refugee status underpins the treatment you receive. We need to work twice as hard as South African citizens to achieve the same result, while being discriminated against and obnoxiously labelled and distained.”
So says Innocent Biringanine, a Congolese national and third-year audiology student at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
This Human Rights Day, Innocent openly shared some of his family’s struggles as they journeyed from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to seek refuge in South Africa.
But on arrival, life was challenging, especially for Innocent.
He endured years of emotional turmoil at the hands of his classmates – only because he looked and spoke differently. Innocent said he was ridiculed regularly and openly discriminated against, acts that affected his mental health.
Receiving his acceptance letter to study at UCT was an accomplishment second to none.
But nothing is ever as
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